Corruption in Spain was before connected to urban development and now to public contracting.
The Diplomat. 28/01/2016
Spain’s position in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, published yesterday by the NGO Transparency International (TI) is worse. Although it maintains a passing grade, it goes down a step, until 36th position, of a total of 168 countries, which represents the worst corruption perception of its history.
According to those responsible for the report, although it cannot be said that there is a “systemic corruption” in Spain –in which police officers, doctors and teachers accept bribes-, that corruption has indeed been generalized, benefiting politicians, which was before connected to urban development and now to “public contracting”, through public companies and leading organizations of the administration.
Spain gets 58 points in the report, two less than in 2014, and, along with Libya, Australia, Brazil and Turkey, it is part of the group of countries that have experienced a bigger fall in their positions in the last four years.
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It goes down to 36th position and it is among those registering the greatest falls in the last four years
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The director for Europe and Central Asia of TI, Anne Koch, considered as something to be concerned about in that area the deterioration in countries such as Hungary, Macedonia, Spain and Turkey. “These are places –she said- where there was a time of hope for a positive change. Now we see that corruption grow, while the space for the civil society and democracy is being reduced”.
Within the framework of the European Union, ahead of Spain are Denmark (91 points), Finland (90), Sweden (89), Holland (87), Germany (81), Luxembourg (81), the United Kingdom (81), Belgium (77), Austria (76), Ireland (75), Estonia (70), France (70), Portugal (63), Poland (62), Cyprus (61), Lithuania (61) and Slovenia (60).
Below Spain’s 58 points are Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Rumania, Italy and Bulgaria.
Denmark, with 91 points (in a scale in which 100 shows maximum cleanness), holds, for the second consecutive year, the first position in the ranking of the most transparent countries, followed by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Holland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Germany, which shares the tenth position with Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
Somalia and North Korea appear among the most corrupt countries, preceded by Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela, Guinea-Bissau and Haiti.
